THE INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE OF YOUTH WRITING CENTERS

Volunteerism

A volunteer is worth twenty pressed men, because you have no energy when you’re sad. Huh? Oh, it’s pressed men—I read it as depressed men, and I was picturing, like, twenty melancholy guys sitting around, doing nothing, while one chipper person does all this work around them, and you know how when you’re depressed, upbeat people are really annoying? Like their happiness registers as hostile and a judgment on your depression? So, in my mental scenario, the cheerful volunteer is zipping around and being productive and whistling, and he’s actually making their depression worse, because they feel like such useless sloths compared to him. I was so taken with the image that I made a short animated film about it, and I hope you’ll consider Twenty Depressed Men for your upcoming animated film festival, despite my clerical error in the title.